The Art of Story

There is a contest for a vacation on a tropical island. Berle and Cecily add their ticket to the drawing. What happens when the winning number is not the winning number? A picture book for early readers. The Cecily and Berle Series. (Author Page on Amazon lists all books,)

Berle announces that Mother Nature is calling her and Cecily. The best way is to go camping. They pack their gear and hike into the country side to be with Mother Nature. The best beginnings may need a different ending. A picture book for early readers. The Cecily and Berle Series. (Author Page on Amazon lists all books.)

Aunt Lucida is coming for a visit. Berle and Cecily want to display the gift she gave them. The gift is a vase — a VERY big vase. They must find something to fill it. A picture book for early readers. The Cecily and Berle Series (Author Page shows all current books.)

My children’s book series with bird-like characters, Cecily and Berle, has been launched. The first two books are on Amazon Kindle. For now I have the books in digital form only. The books are written for “early readers” of ages five to eight years. Each is 30 to 32 illustrated pages with a text of about 1000 words. The illustrations are closely coordinated with the text. My author’s page link is: https://www.amazon.com/author/penelopemerrell

This may be what a neighbor hears when we have to take one of the dogs out in the middle of the night. Otherwise the orange tree is producing magnificently and the neighborhood enjoys it’s bounty. I just sent the files to the Claytons (Mud Flat Press) to format “Twilight of an Artist” for Amazon. I reworked the cover and will post all as soon as the book is on Amazon.

I always think of any art as having wide parameters. Not true in some creative circumstances. For instance, to me, a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. In a current writing class, mine has these three, but doesn’t have “high stakes” or “conflict.” My story isn’t meant to. My story is a window onto a period of time or an event I experienced. I intended to write several short character studies of people I have known. Sigh, guess I need rethink that — maybe have one character shoot the other.

Alec and Gabi Clayton (Clayton Works) via Mud Flat Press help authors publish on CreateSpace and Amazon. They provide formatting for both print and digital books. Both are artists and can provide full book design and artwork for the cover. http://www.claytonworks.com/ and http://www.mudflatpress.com/

A page from SQUAWK! a children’s book that will be out soon. I have the Clayton’s at Mud Flat Press publishing it on Amazon. This is a revision from the original book. All panels are full color — each a little water color painting. Dedicated to Neal Yamamoto who taught me the art of the graphic story.